


Oh, he’s a tiger

by Paddy_2020



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Angry Owen, Embarrassed TK, Homophobia, Light Angst, M/M, Protective Carlos, Protective Michelle, Sad Carlos, Warning: use of a homophobic slur
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:55:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27843352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paddy_2020/pseuds/Paddy_2020
Summary: This is my first fic, and is just based off a prompt I saw on tumblr a while back. Hope you enjoy. I don’t claim ownership of 911 lone star verse.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand, Michelle Blake & Carlos Reyes (9-1-1 Lone Star), TK Strand/Owen Strand
Comments: 8
Kudos: 60





	Oh, he’s a tiger

It was only after waking up, getting a coffee and reading TK’s text when the memories of the night before flooded back to Carlos. He had landed the catch of his life, sure TK had his demons, like all of us do, but Carlos could still not shake the thought that he was the luckiest man in the world to be able to finally call TK Strand his boyfriend. He chuckled lightly typing a reply before noticing the mark on his neck from the night before, fortunately it was low enough that his uniform collar would hide it, unfortunately he knew he would not be so lucky when getting changed at the station. Still, the man was on cloud nine and nothing was going to spoil his morning. 

TK was walking into the station when he heard Paul whistle at him, clearly seeing the hickeys all down his neck from the night before,“I see you and your boy made up then” before Marian walked up to him saying “congratulations” and giving him a knowing look. Meanwhile Owen Judd and Mateo were mercifully oblivious to this development in his love life, although not for long, as when TK entered the kitchen, purple blotches clearly visible on his neck Owen settled him with a glare, before joking saying “I guess that’s why you didn’t answer my texts last night”. Judd, Mateo and the others were all quickly laughing and congratulating him, before the bell went, dispatching them to a five car pileup. 

Carlos’ morning was still going well, the events of the night before still running through his mind along with his plan to head down to the 126 and invite TK out for lunch if he wasn’t on a call. Eventually he arrived at the police station, parking and walking into the locker room. Mercifully it was empty so he quickly tried to change his shirt, hoping to not have to face the wolf whistles and comments about the impending nature of his and TK’s relationship. ‘Seriously why does everyone have to be so good at being detectives here, I know it’s their job but still, it’s exhausting’. As he was pulling his shirt over his head, Carlos heard another person walking into the room. He heard their greeting but didn’t recognise the voice, so he presumed it was one of the new officers. Once he had his shirt off, Carlos turned around to say hi to his new workmate, he had no sooner introduced himself to the new officer than he heard him chuckling (again clearly seeing the purple hickey in his neck) before asking “who’s the cougar?”. Normally Carlos would have been more cautious before disclosing his sexuality to a complete stranger, as even in a progressive city like Austin, there were still those who would not take kindly to the fact that they were going to have to work alongside an openly gay man. The combination of the other man’s friendly demeanour and the fact that Carlos was still riding the high of last night, however, made him let his guard down, he quickly replied “oh there’s no cougar, he’s a tiger”. Immediately Carlos realised he’d misjudged, the other officer went silent, changing quickly before leaving the room without uttering another word to Carlos. 

Half an hour or so later, Carlos was called into the Captain’s office to find out what recruit he was going to be working alongside, he was assigned to work with an officer Eddie Harrison, the guy was impressive, that’s for sure - he had passed the police academy with flying colours and had commendations from every one of his instructors. As a result of that, Carlos felt that he’d actually got a good deal this year and had someone who wasn’t going to require hand holding throughout their entire probation, that was, he felt good until he saw his staff photo. Sitting there smiling up at him from the file was the man who he had met in the locker room, admittedly looking a lot happier than he had when he found out his coworker was gay. After his meeting, Carlos decided to meet with his new colleague in an attempt to clear the air, however, before he had a chance they were both dispatched to the scene of a five car pileup to assist the 126 in crowd control.

Carlos pulled up just after the fire engine and went to see what Captain Strand needed him to do, despite the seriousness of the situation he heard wolf whistles coming from TK’s crew, clearly Carlos was not the only person to have an embarrassing moment that morning. When officer Harrison realised what was happening he gave TK a glare that said every homophobic taunt possible in the space of a few seconds before turning on his heel and walking away to start on crowd control. Unfortunately, Carlos hadn’t been at his post for more than five minutes when he heard an explosion, clearly the fighter fighters hadn’t noticed the smell of leaking petrol and a spark from one of the car’s batteries had set it off. All Carlos could think at that moment was that TK had been near that car and within a second he was shouting his lover’s name and running towards the flames. Luckily TK was fine, although his eyebrows would beg to differ, and had just had a bit of a scare. Still Carlos forgot all about his work and immediately rushed forwards to hug his boyfriend, earning himself an ‘I disapprove of this at work, but I’ll allow it cause when no one’s looking I’ll be doing the exact same and I’m also glad that my son is finally happy’ look from Owen and an even harsher glare form his new coworker. Seriously, what was that guy’s problem? Carlos was a reasonable person, but the one thing that annoyed him was people who wouldn’t accept him for who he was, despite the fact that doing so wouldn’t affect them in the slightest. Once the scene was cleared Carlos and Eddie spent the entire journey back to the station in silence and continued in that way until lunch. Carlos clocked off early, hoping to catch TK, partly for a romantic lunch date at their favourite food truck and partly to check that he was OK. 

When Carlos walked out to his car he saw, much to his horror that the beautiful blue paintwork of his Camero had been scored and had the word faggot written on it, even though he had been out for the last decade of his life, Carlos still felt a sense of sadness and shame at that word, hating that this was the world he snd TK had to live in. Turning swiftly on his heel Carlos called an Uber to take him down to the 126 instead, after all he didn’t want his boyfriend blaming himself for Carlos’ crappy morning. He had his suspicions about the culprit, however, he kept his thoughts to himself throughout lunch before returning to the station to report the damage to the duty sergeant.  
TBC

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, please leave kudos or a comment if you liked it or if you have any ideas for how the story could develop, if you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them!


End file.
